AAfter the exploits of Antoine Dupont and the rugby 7s team, will the French achieve a second great performance at the Paralympic Games? On the Arena Champ-de-Mars, the French wheelchair rugby team will enter the fray this Thursday, August 29, at 5:30 p.m., against Denmark. The wheelchair rugby competition runs until September 2. Although the tournament is mixed, the French team will be composed exclusively of male players. Overall, women are a small minority in this discipline.
Like other sports on the Paralympic Games programme, the rules are slightly different from those of the Olympic Games: the field size is different, the playing time is different (four periods of eight minutes), teams are made up of only four players and forward passes are allowed, for example. But the goal remains broadly the same: for the ball carrier to cross the opponent’s goal line.
The most notable specificity is the shape of the ball. Wheelchair rugby, a Paralympic sport since 2000, is not played with an oval ball but with a round ball.
Lots of travel and contacts
Although it is obviously largely inspired by rugby, the rules of wheelchair rugby have several points in common with those of wheelchair basketball, rugby, handball and volleyball. The ball that the players fight for is similar to that of volleyball. The passes are not at all the same style as in wheelchair rugby. […] Read more
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